Various delivery companies/services maintain a fleet of delivery vehicles with internal shelving to hold packages and other items for delivery. The user needs to be able to quickly and easily add items to and remove items from the shelf from the rear opening of the vehicle. Similarly, when the shelf is empty, the user needs to be able to quickly and easily stow the empty shelf in a position that is out of the way. Restoration of the shelf from the stowed position also needs to be simple and easy for the user preferably from the rear opening of the vehicle.
Any shelving unit must also meet “customer requirements” of low cost, safety, ease of installation and replacement, and minimal added weight. Delivery companies/services maintain large fleets of vehicles and any shelving solution should not be complex to minimize cost during retrofitting or replacement of current structures. Any installation of the shelving unit should be easy and quick to perform. Safety of the user during use is paramount since in their work, the users are necessarily out in the field delivering and there is no one else there to help. Shelving units should be sturdy enough for the size and weight of packages that will be stowed on them, yet not added any unnecessary weight to the vehicle for fuel efficiency.
In the event an item should slip behind a rear edge of a mounted shelving unit, it should not be necessary to entirely disassemble the unit to retrieve the item. Packages and items should be restrained from sliding off of the shelf when the vehicle is in motion, particularly when turning corners, accelerating or stopping.
Typical delivery vehicles have side walls made of plywood with one or more slotted, horizontally running channels, such as E Series Track, mounted at different heights thereon. The channels have spaced apart vertical slots. Various manufacturers, such as Kinedyne Corporation of Branchburg, N.J., make such channels and devices for connecting into the slots of the channels for mounting cross beams, such as the Series E Wood Beam Socket, within the box of the vehicle.